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The establishment of the Laboratory was associated with the need to solve an important issue. Russia was trying to overcome its reliance dependence on import export of precious metals. For a long time Russia had no gold or silver mines and had to import these metals and copper.

By the middle of the XVIII-th century, silver and gold and silver fields mines were discovered in the Urals Mountains and in Siberia. However, their utilization was associated with caused a number of problems.

Alongside with field development and metal delivery to the Mint location, it was necessary to implement master the process of smelting precious metals from ore (before that gold and silver had never been smelted in Russia), as well as to adapt that process for specific types of ore raw materials. That was the task for the Laboratory which was established.

Laboratory that was established in 1746 and which combined purely production and research activities. Due to its efforts, by the end of the XVIII18-th century Russian minting industry was no longer dependent on imported raw materials and Russia began to use only its own metal to mint coins.